The “11-M” hearing kicked off today: the trial for 29 people accused of involvement in Spain’s worst terrorist attack ever. On the 11^th of March 2004 a series of bombs went off in rush-hour commuter trains in different parts of Madrid, killing nearly 200 people and wounding ten times that many. The worst carnage occurred disconcertingly close to where I live; there is a placard outside my local swimming pool to remember the use of the complex as a makeshift emergency hospital on the morning of the attacks.

In the media excitement leading up to the trial the focus has centred on the logistics of the hearing and the veracity of a conspiracy theory linking local terrorists ETA with the bombings. Personally, I’m more concerned with the fairness of the trial itself. I know, I know: how much more pinko-bleeding-heart-liberal can you get than worrying about a bunch of terrorists getting a fair trial?

Well, my concern is exactly because these people are on trial. We don’t know yet whether every one of these 29 men is guilty. And because the possibility exists that they are not guilty, they deserve a fair hearing. Just because they’re accused of something horrific and extreme doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get a fair shot.

Unfortunately, the media appears to have reached a verdict already. Most of centre and left-wing press is happy to poke fun at the ETA conspiracy theory – I’ve seen two references to Goebbles’ principles of propaganda in the last few days – but they seem to believe that the accused are guilty as sin. The local rag mentioned in passing that those on trial are “mostly Islamic terrorists, apart from four Asturians [Spaniards]”. The first to give evidence is a guy called Rabei Osman. But that’s a complicated, orthographically challenging foreign name – so he’s been all but officially dubbed “Mohammed the Egyptian”.

Now, I haven’t looked deeply into the ins and outs of the case, and I’m not a law graduate. But since this is my blog, and I’m here to give you my opinion, I’ll share the faint tinkle of alarm bells that I’m hearing.

First of all, I wonder about the mass-trial concept. What kind of a shot at justice is each suspect going to get when there are 29 people being tried at once? It’s a lot of people to deal with together on such a serious case.

My main concern, though, is that this is a rushed case. It’s estimated that the hearing will take several months at least and that a decision is not likely until a year from now. But the decision has to be out a year from now, because on the fourth anniversary of the attacks the warrant to hold all these suspects will expire. A year from now is the deadline: either lock them up and throw away the key, or let them run free. That seems kind of tight, especially when you remember that this is dealing with almost thirty people allegedly involved with the worst terrorist attack Europe has ever seen.

Other posts by Katie Llanos-Small